World War II Project - Brigade Games American Infantry III

I managed to get a little more work down on the US Inafantry from the Brigade Games Disposable Heroes Infantry Kickstarter. At this point I have moved into the Heavy Weapons; US009, US010 and US014. I'm hoping to get the rest cleaned up over the weekend.

US009 US Infantry .50 cal HMG with 3 crew

US010 US Infantry 60mm Mortar with 3 crew

US014 US Infantry Engineers

World War II Project - Brigade Games American Infantry II

Another day of meetings allowed me so find some time to continue prepping the American infantry from the Brigade Games WWII Disposable Heroes Miniatures Kickstarter. So today I was able to prep US002 (a second bag of 6), 004, 005, 006, 007 and 008. I have two each of US004 and 008 to make sure I had enough miniatures for possible unit variations and a little extra MG support. I'm finding some of the sculpting a bit uneven on these. Some are really good especially US005 and some are kind of just average. I'm still of the opinion that with the advances in digital sculpting, which Brigade Games has used that he would have been better served in going that direction with these miniatures. Although the real test will be getting some paint on these guys and seeing how they turn out in the end.

Again, I'm not doing any assembly at this point so the heads will remain loose for now. Here are the pictures from today (minus the US002 NCOs which is already pictured in the first American Infantry post):

US004 US Infantry Rifles A - Advancing 

US005 US Infantry Rifles B - Advancing

US006 US Infantry Rifles C - Firing

US007 US Infantry Rifles D - Firing

US008 US Infantry .30 cal MMG with 3 crew.

World War II Project - Brigade Games American Infantry I

I am in Baltimore this week and I remembered to at least throw something in the bag to work on. That happened to be the bag of American Infantry from the Brigade Games Disposable Heroes Miniatures Kickstarter. I managed to clean up US001 US infantry platoon command, US002 US infantry NCOs and US003 US infantry BAR teams.

Here is the results. note that I won't glue heads on till I get home.

US 001 Infantry Platoon Command

US 002 US Infantry NCOs

US 003 US Infantry BAR teams

World War II Project - Basing the Germans

With the expectation of the Badger primers arriving this week I went ahead and started preparing the Germans for painting. I have been going back and forth on what bases to use for this. My British Airborne are already mounted on 25mm rounds which settles that part of the equation. I don't like the look of tall bases on the table so I want something that's a lower profile. I have some 1.5mm plywood bases from Litko that were going to be my first choice, but I would need a lot of filler to hide the base of the figure and I had no intention of cutting all those troops off their bases. I started rummaging through my base box and I found a bag of 25mm round bases from Proxie Models. These are low profile with a slight lip which I think are ideal for this. I kept digging and found two unopened bags and about half of another. These are the bases I use for Calamity but I haven't worked on any minis for that for a while and I forgot I had them.

That takes care of the regular standing troops, but I need larger bases for the teams. I pulled out some 60mm Litko bases to get an idea and arrange the teams on them to see how they look. 60mm is good for the deployed two man LMG teams and the sniper team. I need something a bit bigger for the HMG  and mortar teams. Fortunately Proxie Models is still in business so I ordered 25mm, 60mm, 75mm and 90mm rounds. Hopefully those will arrive shortly, they have been pretty quick in the past.

In the mean time I have based and added the fill to the regular German troops.

Standing troops mounted on the Proxie Models 25mm bases.

Here is the 60mm Litko base (1.5mm plywood) for a two man team. I suppose I might be able to fit this on a 40mm round

The deployed LMG on the 60mm base looks pretty good though with room for some scenery

The mortar team looks a little tight, especially if I want to include some scenic elements on the base.

The HMG team looks really tight though.

I have two jars of stuff from Liquitex, Resin Sand and Natural Sand and I can never remember which one I like the best.
This gunner's base is filled with the Resin Sand

The ammo carrier's base is filled with the Natural Sand

The first batch of Germans with the Resin Sand, which has a nice rougher texture

The whole group sans the team

World War II Project - Brigade Games German Infantry III

The is the last of my Germans from the Brigade Games kickstarter. This batch is primarily support weapons; 81mm Mortar and crew, MG42 on Tripod and crew, sniper team and panzerschrecks. I also picked up another set of German NCOs (which I probably don't need) and MG42 teams. The MG42 teams give me the flexibility to use these as either regular infantry or as panzer grenadiers.

The only thing that really came out wrong was the Panzerschreck team came with US heads, but a quick check of the Bazooka bag showed that they had German heads so it worked out in the end. Although quite frankly I have plenty of heads for just about any eventuality.  The only other issue as such were the legs for the mortar which were pretty mangled in the package.

With everything cleaned up I'll get everyone mounted up on painting sticks and they should be ready for priming as soon as the new primers arrive. I'm going to give James Wappel's shaded basecoat a try and see how quickly I can get these guys ready for the table.

Today's work:

German 81mm Mortar and 4 crew

MG42 in Heavy MG role

Panzerschrecks

Sniper Team, no separate heads for this team!

The whole lot
From left to right: NCOs, Panzerschrecks, Mortar Team, Sniper Team, MG42 Team and the LMG teams

World War II Project - Brigade Games German Infantry

There was a little time to get some work done last night, after we cleared up the back porch from all the debris of fall. We were fortunate in that the one plant that Phoebe likes to chew on is the one plant that we have to cut down in the fall. She has taken care of most of that work for us!

I gave my wife some airbrush lessons and while she was busy painting things black and getting used to the dual action controls I pulled out the WWII miniatures that I received from the Brigade Games Kickstarter. I haven't really had a chance to look at these since I got them. Since my wife is learning how to use the airbrush what better excuse to prep some minis so that she has something to practice on. I pulled out the platoon bag of Germans and managed to prep G003, G004 (x2) and G005. From the website that would be the MG42 teams (three teams of two), Riflemen advancing (two packs of six in this case) and Riflemen Firing. A total of 24 figures, I still have the bag of NCOs and Platoon HQ to go.

Overall I am please with these minis. The sculpting has a rougher style than I'm used to seeing but I think they will look really good when they are painted up. For bagginess of the clothing combined with the rough sculpting style remind of the old Willie & Joe cartoons by Bill Mauldin. Ostensibly these are 1/56th scale minis, so at some point I'll do a comparison with the plastic ones from Warlord Games.

I'm going to try something completely different from my normal style on these. James Wappel uses a technique he refers to as the shaded basecoat and then finishes off the minis with a series of washes and glazes. James uses Badger's Stynlrez primers to create the shaded basecoat and I'm eager to give it a try. I would like to get these ready for the table as quickly as I can.

So here we have a first look at the Brigade Games WWII German miniatures:

G004 Riflemen advancing.
The heads are separate so you can change the look. I think the faces could have been better sculpted and I'm less than thrilled with a vent coming right out the chin.

And with the heads attached. I had eight heads in the bag so I will be accumulating a few extra as I go through the process. You should definitely test fit the head to the torso before you glue. I trimmed most of the "necks" shorter to get a good fit, the depth of the hole in the torso is not the same across the board so how much you have to trim off varies a lot. There are also a couple of heads with very wide "necks" and there are only a couple of minis those fit with.

The second set of G004

G005 Riflemen Firing
I feel that some of the firing poses are a little awkward. They do look better with the heads attached though.

And now with heads! Again there were spare heads which allows you to change the look a bit.

G006 MG42 Teams
I'm not thrilled with the look of the MG42 itself but I really like the poses of the standing minis. The ammunition carrier is really weighed down with equipment and spare ammunition. You three variations here, deployed and firing, walking and running.

And now complete with heads

I had the Warlord Games PzKfw IV sitting nearby so I grabbed that for a quick comparison shot. I think the BG minis look pretty good against it.

Kickstarter Rewards Received - Disposable Heroes Miniatures

Brigade Games ran a Kickstarter to start a line of WWII miniatures to support their Disposable Heroes Miniatures Rules. This one closed in May and was supposed to deliver in July. They were only a couple of months late on this one which is not to bad but the communication really needed to be better.

I think the miniatures look quite good and the M4A3 is a new release from Company B. I haven't built a Company B tank so I'm looking forward to that. I'm not sure when I'm getting to these but I would like to move them up in the queue since I'm trying to actively work on the World War II project while filling in gaps with the other projects.

Here are a few pictures. 

What came in the box. I bought a platoon of US, a platoon of Germans, along with some support weapons and a few extras. In this case American and German NCOs, and extra German LMGs so I could field the German squads as Panzer Grenadiers.

Packs of the German Platoon, 35 figures, including the platoon HQ figures.

US NCOs, yes all the heads are separate so you have a few options to make the minis look a little different.

German LMG crews

M4A3 from Company B

Not thrilled with the casting lines on the tracks, fortunately most of that is hidden

The turret and all the white metal detail parts. Definitely more than a simple kit with cast on details. Looking forward to making this one.

Kickstarter Diposable Heros II Miniatures - Brigade Games - Update

The stretch goals are coming slowly in this one and its a short turnaround Kickstarter. If you are thinking of jumping in then I would certainly encourage you to do so. I did find out that the M4A3 Sherman that is an add-on is being sculpted and produced by Company B. I'm looking forward to picking one of these up. Should be a nice compliment to my M4A1 Sherman that is sitting on the shelf from Trenchworx.

28mm World War 2 Wargaming Miniatures - Disposable Heroes

We are getting some nice free stuff added to the various platoons at this point as well as access to a US .30 cal MG with crew and I can get some extra German LMG teams so I can double these guys up as a Panzergrenadier platoon.

I'm getting at least one of these.

There are a couple of other options available though.

Brigade Games for Calamity

I think I suffer from sever shiny syndrome. The World War II project is underway so that was a sure way to get me thinking about Calamity again. I was wandering around the Brigade Games site and decided to pick up a few cowboy packs that I was missing from them. Another package on the step and the bin of Calamity figures gets fuller.

Just three packs from Brigade at this point. Nice minis will look really nice when I get around to painting them up.

A very small package from Brigade

A few rifles are going to need some gentle straightening